Abstract

Social exclusion and social inclusion refer to material, symbolic, and existential deprivation (social exclusion) or absence thereof (social inclusion), although no comprehensive theoretical framework encompasses them. In contrast with the notion of poverty, which largely refers to a lack of material resources, social exclusion is more relational and multidimensional. Its origins are in the French 1960s social Catholicism and 1970s French policy discourse. A more complex view of inclusionary exclusion and exclusionary inclusion has been elaborated in relation to spatiality. The other two main phenomena in relation to which social exclusion and inclusion have been analyzed are race and ethnicity, and gender. Criticism addresses both phenomena's dichotomic nature, their potential of obscuring class struggle, and their exclusively state‐centered orientation, such that the concepts cannot capture global injustice.